But Home's Back There
by JustAGenericWriter
Summary: Monster Kid, feeling guilty, tries to go get some Halloween candy for Frisk, who's not celebrating. Only they don't know how to Trick-or-Treat properly and humans aren't very accepting of new things.
**_"So? Don't you have any wishes to make?"_**

Monster Kid had only fallen on their face once that day, and was really excited. At this rate, when they were getting ready to graduate they could probably join the Royal Guard- well, its new name was "the police," but Undyne was part of it so it must have been like the Royal Guard.

Maybe if they were good enough they could ask Undyne to train them personally! That would be so awesome. They could learn everything that she knew and maybe one day be almost as good as her.

They had heard once that sometimes the "police" would spy on people. That seemed really simple. They were small so they wouldn't be noticed as much. If they did that then maybe they could learn something cool and important!

Then Undyne would be really impressed. They didn't know where she lived and doubted they would ever meet her again anytime soon, but they saw her every once in a while; they never had the courage to talk to her, but if they learned something _really_ important, they would. Only then though, 'cause she was probably doing really important stuff.

It was raining out, but predicted to end that afternoon. Frisk was really happy about that for some reason. They kept signing that it was a special day when it got dark in a few days, and if it was raining they wouldn't be able to do it. They had actually signed something more specific but MK didn't recognize the word, even when they spelled it out, so they just concluded it was some weird human thing.

That, however, gave MK a perfect idea. Maybe the secret human thing was something Undyne would be interested in!

School had just ended so maybe they could follow Frisk and see if they started mentioning it again.

The rain was cold though. Really cold. It was a bit rude to follow Frisk, wasn't it? Maybe it was private thing that they were doing.

But then- why would it need to be private? Still, it was rude. They knew they shouldn't have even thought about something like that. Undyne would never spy on someone she trusted because she wanted to impress someone, would she?

Monster Kid shook their head and sighed. "Undyne would think this is _so_ uncool," they muttered, turning around. They were following Frisk to what they knew to be the way to Mrs. Toriel's house. Frisk lived there, too, they remembered. _Maybe,_ they thought, _I should apologize._

What they were planning on doing was really mean- but what Frisk didn't know couldn't hurt them, right?

They didn't know what to do. They were already feeling guilty, and at times like this they wished they could call someone to ask them how to deal with this dilemma. They wished they had arms.

They started to walk forward, towards the way home. It was raining really hard and their parents were really scared of it. The first time it rained when they moved to the surface there was this weird light thing that killed a nearby tree and was really loud. They had to be really worried about them.

Maybe, they thought as their apartment came into sight, they could learn more about the weird thing that night and help Frisk with whatever it was- just to make up for it. Frisk was really close to Undyne so maybe she would be there and they could show her how good their fighting had gotten!

That sounded cool. They would definitely ask their dad if they could when they got home.

* * *

They didn't forget to ask their dad, they _didn't_. They just figured that if it was a weird human thing, why would _he_ know? Besides, their papa had bought Spider Donuts for the three of them to share. He said it was because he didn't want them to feel left out. MK didn't know what they would feel left out on. Maybe papa and dad had done something earlier that they weren't a part of. Who knew?

So they decided to explain what had happened to Mrs. Toriel. Mrs. Toriel (she refused to be called "the queen") always knew what to do. And she was teacher! Teachers always knew everything. They wished Undyne would be a teacher. That would be the most awesome class ever, but Undyne was probably doing something important and didn't have the time.

Maybe, if Mrs. Toriel didn't know, they could ask her. If she had time. They didn't want to bother them.

So they waited until all of the others had gone to recess and hopped away from their dull, brown desk (they had no books or pens, but rather the kid next to them took notes for them), approaching Mrs. Toriel a bit nervously.

Then, without warning, they felt themself fall and hit the floor- hard.

"Ow," they moaned, before they stood up again. Their face hurt, as it always did.

"Are you alright, child?" they heard her ask them, scuffling their chair so they could stand and rushing over. "It's a good thing we have a carpeted room, or else you might have been even more injured."

"I'm fine," they muttered. Toriel kneeled down next to them, and rubbed their back. "Why didn't you go to recess with the other children? Surely, something must be troubling you."

"Nothin'", they muttered, shaking their head. "Just wanted to ask you a question."

Toriel look at them and smiled gently. "You may ask," she said, nodding her head slightly.

They looked at her and then put their head down, almost in shame (they decided not to do it, so _why_ did they feel like the humans must have when they heard about Undyne?), and muttered, "I was gonna spy on Frisk 'sterday."

"Oh?" She said. They didn't know what her face was like but she had to be disappointed. It sounded so _creepy_ and they knew they shouldn't have done it but-

"What else?"

They shook their head, and sighed, "I didn't do it, because it would have been wrong. But- but I wanna make up for it."

"Make up for what?" she asked again.

"For- for thinking about it!" they almost yelled. "So, I know Frisk was talkin' about this holiday thing that's 'bout to happen. Maybe I could help them do stuff with it! Or I could-"

"Are you talking about Halloween?" she asked, frowning. They looked over to her blankly.

"I don't know! I don't know what they spelled out!"

"It's coming up tonight," Toriel sighed. "They're not celebrating, actually. They could, everyone would understand, but they know that all of their friends will not find it as fun as they do."

Oh.

"It's a holiday where all of the children dress up in costumes and knock on people's doors to get candy," she explained. "Frisk decided that since no one else would have a costume ready in time it wasn't right for them to celebrate. Perhaps you could make it up to them a different way. If you talked to them about it, I'm sure that they would understand."

MK nodded and smiled.

"That seems like a really cool plan!" they said, before rushing out of the room.

They could get candy _for_ Frisk. That was a cool plan, wasn't it? After all, if the humans were in costumes how would they know they weren't a human?

* * *

"You mayn't go out tonight," their dad said, looking almost right through them.

"But _why?_ " they whined.

"It's too dangerous, MK," their papa butted in.

"No it's not!" they argued. "It's what the humans are doing!"

"I don't care," their papa sighed. "You can't understand it, right now, but _we're just trying to protect you._ That's why I bought you the Spider Donuts, so you wouldn't want to do this."

"That's what they were for? I didn't even know what Halloween _was_!"

"It doesn't matter, MK!" their dad snapped. "You can't go out and that's the end of it. There's no discussion here. Either stop talking about it or go to your room!"

"But _why_ can't I? It doesn't sound dangerous! Other kids are doing it!" they protested.

"No monsters are doing it, I promise you," their papa promised, walking into the room.

"We're not explaining this to them, they're too young," their dad argued.

"They're almost nine, they can handle it," their papa sighed. Then, he bopped their head with his and led them to the old orange couch that squeaked whenever anybody sat on it. MK sat down next to him and looked at him expectantly.

"The humans, well," they looked at MK's dad for help. His feathers rustled and he shook his head.

"A lot of humans don't like us, MK," he tried to explain. "They don't like us so much that- do you know what the word monster means to a human?"

MK shook their head, and looked at the grey carpet in concentration before looking back up at their papa and asking, "What does it mean?"

"It means _bad person._ When there's a bad human, they call them a monster," he explained, bumping against MK to reassure them. "So with this holiday, 'Halloween', they dress up their children as things that are supposed to be scary, and call them _monsters._ Then, they threaten the adults until they get candy. If they don't give them candy, they hurt them."

That couldn't be right.

"But Frisk was gonna do it! Frisk wouldn't be like that, they're _nice_!" they laughed off, smiling. Their parents had to be joking. Frisk wouldn't be like that. And, even if Frisk wasn't so nice, Undyne wouldn't let the humans be so mean. They didn't know how many humans there were (maybe a million) but they were sure if Undyne just beat one up they would understand.

"I dunno Kid," their papa sighed. "Maybe not all humans. But I don't want you going out there. The humans might be upset if they see an actual monster there."

"I promise, papa," they sighed.

They hated lying.

* * *

"I'm sorry I yelled at you, Kid," their dad said after dinner. MK looked at their straw and didn't say anything.

"I was just so ups- no, that doesn't matter. I should have done what your papa did. I should have explained why it's dangerous. I'm sorry," he said, looking directly at them.

MK looked up up at him and smiled. "S'alright dad," they said. "I understand now."

Oh, that almost stung. They knew that they shouldn't lie like that, but their parents were making _no sense_ so they wouldn't understand why they had to go and get candy for Frisk. It was alright to lie when it was really important. That's why surprise parties were okay.

It was almost six now, and it was starting to get dark. MK had to get going, or they would miss it.

"I wanna study," they lied, jumping up and running to their room. They knew their parents wouldn't bother them for a while after that, so they quickly dragged a blanket over to their round bed (it still had the "dog bed" tag on it but they decided to keep it. It gave some color to their dull apartment) and draped it over. It would kinda look like they were sleeping if their parents checked if it was dark enough. They would sneak back in later, when they both were sleeping, and bring the candy to school on Monday. It was a Friday, so they were really lucky. They could ask their dad to help them write an apology note, and their papa could read over it and correct the spelling and stuff because their dad was really bad at it (dis-legged or something).

So they picked up the bag in their room and pushed their crate over to the window and climbed on it, and then looked at the window. How were they supposed to get passed that?

They focused really hard like their papa had taught them and the window started faintly glowing blue, before moving up with a mild squeak. They froze and shifted around, wondering if their parents had heard that.

"I better do this fast," they murmured, before bringing it up just a _little_ more and hopping onto the sill, and then out onto the complex's concrete with a dull thud. Quickly, they pulled themself away from the window and shut the window, before running off with their bag in mouth and not looking back at the apartment. They had to make it up to Frisk, and there was no time for regret.

* * *

It was getting dark and cold really fast and MK didn't know what they were actually supposed to do (they barely knew where they were, only that there were a lot of people there). Were they just supposed to go up to people?

There were a lot of humans that were dressed up as ghosts and weird, unrecognizable things with pitchforks (kinda like the king's) but no real monsters. They were going up these houses that were decorated with a lot of orange and bats and pumpkins. It looked all really exciting. The humans knew what they were supposed to do, but their papa said that the humans were being mean…

Maybe they were misunderstanding the holiday, though. After all, if Frisk was gonna celebrate it, then it couldn't be so bad. It looked like so much _fun._ Maybe the humans were _celebrating monsters_ with it. Who would know? It was the monsters' first year on the surface. None of them could really know too much about it, now could they?

So MK walked confidently up to the first human they saw and smiled at them with the bag in their mouth.

"Pewwo," they said, perfectly aware that their words sounded nothing like what they were trying to communicate. The human looked at the human that was next to them and then back at MK. They rolled their eyes and dropped the bag on the ground.

"Yo!" they chirped. "I'm MK!"

"Where the hell are your arms?" one of them asked. MK frowned. He wasn't allowed to say stuff like that.

"Me and my papa don't have any."

"That's so weird. How do you hold stuff?" the one to the left of the first human said.

"It doesn't matter. That's a _monster_ , Bart. We're not supposed to talk to them. Let's keep going."

The two started walking away from them and MK nearly panicked. "No, wait! I need to ask you something!"

But then they started running and MK knew they couldn't run after them without falling down again.

"That's so lame," they complained, before looking at the other humans around them. There was one only a few yards away. They looked like an adult, so they would be more reasonable when talking to them. After all, adults were supposed to help kids like them.

So they galloped over and looked up at them. "Hi! I'm MK!" they greeted. The human didn't even look over at them and started walking away.

"No, please don't go!" they begged. "I need help!"

The human still didn't look at them, so they walked up a little closer and bopped their leg with their head.

"What do you want?" the human sighed, finally acknowledged.

"Um, well," they stammered. This was awkward. "Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do?"

"Whatcha mean?" they asked, almost sounding bored. "I gotta go get my kids."

"How do I do this holiday?" they asked, trying to clarify. "I've never celebrated it before."

The human looked over at them, and then smiled. "You see these houses?" they asked, pointing at the houses that the kids were at, "If the light's out in the front, you get to yell 'Trick or Treat' as loud as you can and someone will come out and give you candy."

Oh. That made sense, they guessed. "But," the human continued, "you gotta start over at _that_ street." They pointed at a darker street that branched out from the current one.

"Thanks!" they said, running off to the other street after using a bit of magic to pick their bag up again. This holiday didn't sound too complicated. They just had to go up and ask for candy.

That street was really dark. That must have meant that there were a lot of people ready to give out candy. There weren't a lot of people around this area, but that had to be because they had already gotten past this area. Now they had to, and it was going to be really cool. They were gonna be the last kid there, probably, but that was okay. They hoped there would be enough candy for Frisk, though.

So they ran up to the first house and yelled as loud as they could, "Trick or Treat!"

They waited a minute and then realized that they should have knocked first, so they gently pounded their head against the door. They knew there were people home, because there were lights on _inside_.

"Trick or treat!" they yelled again, but a bit less enthusiastically.

"Hello?" they asked after they stood outside for about a minute. Suddenly, all of the lights inside of the house went out. They must not have heard them because they were about to go to bed.

That was okay. There were other houses to ask candy from.

So they went over the the one next to it. It also had no outside lights on. Gently, they rapped their head against the door, and yelled, "Trick or Treat!"

They waited for a minute there again, but no one came to the door. Maybe they were doing it wrong? They couldn't think of what they could possibly be doing incorrectly; but it was human holiday so maybe they weren't understanding _everything_ they had to do to get the candy.

Maybe they should just go home and buy candy at the store tomorrow. That would be easier than _this._

It also felt like it was getting late, and it was just getting colder. There was no reason to stay trying to celebrate this "Halloween" any longer. Their mission to get candy for Frisk could only ultimately be deemed as a failure.

* * *

They were at the street they first saw the humans at (there were still a few there) when they realized that there was a slightly bigger human right behind them.

"Yo!" they greeted.

"You need to leave," the human said. MK was leaving anyway, but something about the human's tone was a bit weird.

"Why?" they asked curiously.

"This is a human neighborhood. You've only been causing trouble here," the human explained. They had paler skin, unlike Frisk, and yellow hair, but a striped shirt. It had to be a kid.

"Uh-uh," MK protested. "I haven't done anything wrong."

"You scared Mrs. Norman. She was so scared she almost called the police," the kid accused.

"No I didn't! I was just doing the holiday!" they protested. "Nobody even came out of their houses!"

"Yeah, 'cause you're a _monster_ ," they spat out, as if it was an insult. Their papa's rang in their mind. _"It means bad person"._

Did that mean their name was Bad Person Kid? They didn't like that.

"I'm sorry?" they said. They didn't understand what possessed them to say that, but the human didn't seem like they liked that. They took a towards MK and then MK suddenly felt a rush of fear.

"What do you want?" they asked, taking a step back. What would Undyne do? She would fight the kid but the kid was bigger than they were. That wouldn't stop Undyne though so they needed to-

 _Oof._

They were shoved onto their back. "Ow," they complained. Now both their face _and_ the back of their head hurt. Maybe if they ran away fast enough they could get Undyne to save them and-

They rolled over and tried to get up, but then they felt their stomach get kicked _(Undyne, I_ need _you!)_ and they immediately (accidentally) summoned the kid's soul out.

"Oh my God it's going to kill her! It tore her heart out!" they heard someone scream. What? They didn't tear their ( _her_ , they corrected themself) heart out. They just summoned her soul out of reflex _(no no no help)_.

 **" M"** they heard suddenly, from behind them.

They glanced back and saw the short skeleton that was near the tall skeleton that Undyne was training a lot. What was his name? They couldn't remember.

They instantly bumped their head against the "Mercy" button and waited for the human to do the same.

"Wha- what's happening to me?" she asked, fear creeping into her voice as the option buttons appeared. Her soul, orange ( _bravery_ , they remembered), ran around in the air quickly. It was a lot bigger than theirs was (barely visible, hidden behind their shirt).

The skeleton walked forward "you tried to fight this kid here, and they summoned your soul. now, push the button that says 'mercy' so I can bring them home."

The girl, looking at the monsters with absolute panic in her eyes, quickly pressed the button. Her soul returned to her body and MK started running back towards home.

"woah there, buddy," they heard. "it's not safe for you to go home alone. lemme walk you."

They stopped running, catching themself before they fell, to look at their savior. He was barely taller than they were but around twice as wide. His eye sockets were lit up with white lights that _weren't_ there before.

"H- hi," they stammered. "I'm MK."

"i'm sans," he said, his hands shoved in the pockets of a blue jacket. "gotta few questions for ya."

"O- okay."

"where do you live?"

"I- I know the way," they said, trying to play it casual.

"yeah, but I know a shortcut."

That made no sense. How could he possibly know a shortcut to a place he didn't know?

They didn't talk for a minute while they walked back to the area where most of the monsters lived.

"okay, okay, don't tell me. we can go the long way if ya want," Sans sighed. "but what are you doing over here? the humans around here don't like monsters too much."

"I- I needed to do something."

"the police got a call that said you were yelling at people's houses. they were really scared," Sans explained. "my brother wanted to come, but he was doin' something with mettaton. kinda wanted to get out of the house just in case it got _spooky._ "

MK looked at him like he had grown a second head. They were fairly certain skeletons couldn't do that.

"no? i thought a bit of adult humor would be _'armless._ my boyfri- er, grillbz would have glared at me for that. he's gotta go out on a _limb_ to appreciate things."

Oh, _puns._ They snickered a bit.

"there we go. but back on subject. you had to have had a good reason for yelling in the middle of the street."

MK blushed a bit, and stumbled forward, only to be caught by the skeleton. "i'll carry you," he offered, "if you tell me what happened."

They nodded (it was so dark, and their head hurt), and stayed silent while, and Sans, while he had picked them up, stopped walking forward.

"I wanted to get Frisk some candy, 'cause no one else was ready for Halloween so they weren't going to celebrate," they explained.

"heh. i guess your judgement kinda _glazed_ over with that, huh?" he said, as he started forward again.

"look kid, I don't know where i'm going. address?"

MK whispered it quietly, before seeing the world go even darker and suddenly they both were in front of their apartment.

"here we are," he murmured, before setting MK down and knocking on the door. It was answered almost instantly by their dad, who squalled out loudly. Their papa also quickly came to the door, almost tripping over the carpet before he caught himself mid-air.

"Kid! We were worried sick! You weren't there and we were about to call the police but we didn't wanna-" their papa began to rant. Their dad just looked at them, eyes emotionless, and covered them in their brown wing.

"You should go to bed, MK. We can talk in the morning after your papa's calmed down," he said. MK knew it really wasn't a suggestion, and _they were in so much trouble._

"can we talk?" Sans asked them, and they nodded, their papa letting him in while their dad brought him to bed.

"I gotta go thank the skeleton now, MK," he said, leading them through the drab halls of the almost bare-apartment. "Please," he said, a bit of emotion dripping into his voice as they both reached MK's room, "never do that to us again."

MK looked at him, almost feeling like crying (Undyne wouldn't cry), and nodded. "I promise, dad. I mean it this time. I'm sorry."

Their parents would have no incentive to trust them now. They had _lied_ to them. Sorry wasn't enough.

"I'm so sorry."

It was all they could say, though.

"It's okay," he said, patting their head. "We can talk in the morning. It's been a hard night, Kid. Did anything happen to you?"

MK remembered what happened with the human girl, but shook it out of their mind. Telling their dad would only make him angry and worried. They could deal with that in the morning. "I'm fine, dad."

Their dad gently pecked their shoulder, and opened the door for them. "Night, Kid."

"Night, dad," they said he closed the door. They didn't go to their bed, though. The instead pressed their ear against the door, listening to the grown-ups talk.

"tori must have told him that frisk wanted to celebrate. i don't know all the details but it sounds like they just wanted to make it up to frisk. they didn't understand the holiday."

"They could have been killed."

"They're _our child._ We have to press charges!"

"the courts will never take you seriously. trust me. they're very _para-_ legal."

"Holidays were so much more civil in the Underground."

Sometimes, MK wished they were back in the Underground too.

Things weren't so confusing there.

 ** _"That's my wish, too."_**

* * *

 **A special thanks to my Grammar-Fixer Person Catherine, who also gave the prompt.**


End file.
